Three player chess game board



Oct. 13, 1970 G. DEFFENBAUGH ETAL 3,533,627

THREE PLAYER CHESS GAME BOARD Filed Nov. 10. 1966 WWW m H 7 u WWII I I5Y Ill IVII'S l h N INVENTORS Q W 2 GENE DEFFE UGH Q Y DAVID [1 l x l G.FRED CK Ca M14 mad TORNEYS United States Patent Ohio Filed Nov. 10,1966, Ser. No. 593,496 Int. Cl. A6315 3/02 US. Cl. 273131 3 ClaimsABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Game apparatus comprising a board and chesspieces whereby each of three players may simultaneously compete againstthe other two.

The board is in the shape of a six sided polygon of which threerelatively long sides alternate with three relatively short sides and inwhich the relatively short sides are of the length of the relativelylong sides. The face of the board is divided into 142 equilateraltriangles, approximately one-third being of one color, approximately onethird being of a second color, and the remaining approximately one thirdbeing of a third color. Used with the board are three sets of chessmen,each set having a different color, and the color of each setcorresponding to one of the colors on the board. The three chess setsare conventional, each having eight pawns and eight pieces. A similarboard for playing checkers is shown in which the relatively short sidesare the length of the relatively long sides and which is divided into117 spaces approximately half of one color uniformly distributedthroughout the other half of a second color.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION When chess is played on the conventional twocolor square board, all the spaces are used. The duality of space colorsoften corresponds to a duality of piece colors. Thus the black queenbegins on a dark space and the white queen begins on a light space.

Often three persons are together and all of them enjoy playing chess orcheckers. If the conventional board is used, one of these three personsis relegated to being merely an observer rather than a participant.

Others have attempted to invent game boards on which three persons mayparticipate. However, these boards are limited by one or more of severaldifiiculties some of which are discussed below.

Some boards have voids or large irregular unused portions.

Some prior art three player boards do not have spaces each of which hasone of three colors to correspond to three sets of chess pieces.

Finally, a factor which is very important to a chess player is that manyprior art boards, especially those having circular or regular hexagonalplaying spaces, do not app ar to provide for an arrangement by which themovement of a rook is different from the movement of a bishop.

OBJECTS It is therefore an object of our invention to provide new anduseful game apparatus including boards having patterns which are notlimited by any of the difiiculties described above.

Further objects and features of our invention will be apparent from thefollowing specifications and claims when considered in connection withthe accompanying drawings illustrating several embodiments of ourinvention.

We have found that the foregoing objects may be attained with a gameapparatus having chessmen and 3,533,627 Patented Oct. 13, 1970 "icehaving a game board therefor with a surface, lines on the surfaceforming a plurality of triangles, every triangle having at least twosides identical with the sides of two other triangles, and at least twoof its vertices coincident with the vertic s of at least two othertriangles; and indicia in the triangles to distinguish some of thetriangles from other triangles.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a game board playing field pattern on whichthree persons may participate in a game of checkers.

FIG, 2 is a plan view of a game board playing field pattern constructedaccording to our invention on which three persons may participate in agame of chess.

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONCHECKERBOARD In FIG. 1 we have shown a three playercheckerboard pattern having a plurality of triangular playing spaces.The circular checker playing pieces are shown in the positions theyoccupy before a game has begun. There are three sets of playing pieceseach set having a different color which is indicated by conventionaldrafting symbols.

The board pattern shown in FIG. 1 has thereon a plurality of equilateraltriangular playing spaces, fiftyseven of which are white and sixty ofwhich are red. The periphery of the board defines a six sided polygonhaving sides alternately three and six units in length. The side of eachtriangle defines one unit of length.

For purposes of illustration, the rows of playing spaces are numberedand the columns of playing spaces have been assigned letters. Forexample, row 2 is the row of playing spaces which is between twoparallel lines and contains the second row of white checkers.

A column is a column of triangular playing spaces which alternatelyshare vertices with other triangular playing spaces in the same columnand alternately share sides opposite the shared vertices with othertriangular playing spaces in the same column. Column H, for example,contains the playing space in row 9 which has the end black checker ofthe second (inner) row of black checkers. It also has the red playingspace in row 1 which has one of the middle white checkers of the first(outer) row of white checkers.

The playing spaces along every row and along every column arealternately colored red and white. Obviously other combinations of twocolors could be used, such as black and red or black and white. Like aconventional checkerboard pattern, no two playing spaces of the samecolor have an identical side. Every playing space has one or morevertices which are coincident with vertices of playing spaces having thesame color.

By such an arrangement of spaces and colors, we not only have provided aboard having features which are similar to the features of aconventional checkerboard but also have, unlike prior inventors,provided them in a game board playing field pattern on which threepersons can participate in the game.

RULES OF THE CHECKER GAME The rules governing the movement of thecheckers may preferably be analogous to the rules on a conventionalboard. The checker positioning may be limited to the playing spaces ofone color. As shown in FIG. 1, the checkers are confined to the redspaces, and, throughout a normal game as we propose it to be played withthe board and checkers of FIG. 1, the game is confined to the redspaces.

A checker game is thus begun by positioning the checkers on the redspaces of the board as shown in FIG. 1. A first player begins by makinghis first move. A second player makes his move and the third playermakes his 3 move. The players then continue in turn making their movesone move at a time.

The base line of a set of checkers is that peripheral line which isnearest to and parallel to a line passing through a row of checkers asthey are positioned before any moves are made. Each set of checkers hasits own base line.

To execute a non-jumping move, a checker may be moved from thetriangular playing space on which it had been previously placed, along aline parallel to either one of the two sides of the said triangularplaying space which are not parallel to its base line, away from itsbase line, to the next space having the same color in it as the spacefrom which the checker began. For example, the red checker on space Ncould move either to space L5 or to space M4. From space L5 it couldmove either to space K4 or to space J5.

A checker of one color may jump a checker of either other color which ison a playing space to which the jumping checker could make a non-jumpingmove if there were no jumped checker on that space. A jump isaccomplished by moving the jumping checker in a single direction throughthe space occupied by the opposing jumped checker to the next spacethereafter. This next space thereafter must have been empty in order tomake a jump. The jumped checker is then removed from the board. A movemay consist of several jumps. Although each individual jump must bealong one straight line, any move consisting of a plurality of jumps maybe along dilferent straight lines. For example, if the only checkers onthe board were a white checker at space H3, a black checker at space G8,and red checkers at spaces I6 and I4, then the white checker could jumpthe remaining checkers by jumping first to space J5 and then to spaceH7, and then to space F9.

A king is acquired when any checker reaches a space having a vertex onthe peripheral line opposite to and parallel with the base line of theset to which the checker belongs. A king moves like any other pieceexcept that a king may move backward as well as forward (i.e., is notrequired to move away from its base line). A game is won when the onechecker (or all of the checkers) remaining on the board is (or are) ofone color only.

As in conventional checkers, each checker which is not a king has achoice of only two spaces to which it may move without jumping. As inconventional checkers there are no voids or non-playing areas betweenopposing sets of checkers. As in conventional checkers, the board hastwo sets of uniformly distributed colored spaces and the game isconfined to one of such sets. A game of checkers may be played almostexactly as it is played on a conventional board except that threepersons may play on our board. Alternately checkers may be played on ourboard by two persons only. This may be done after the checkers of one ofthree players have been eliminated.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION-CHESSBOARD In FIG. 2 we have shown a chessboardplaying field pattern constructed according to our invention. As before,we have numbered and assigned letters to the rows and columns. Thereversed arrangement of letters U and R has no particular significance.FIG. 2 shows that the chessboard is a six sided polygon havingperipheral sides alternately three and seven units in length andcontaining a plurality of equilateral triangular playing spaces. Eachplaying space is one of three dilferent colors. The colors aredistributed so that no spaces with the same color have identical linesegment sides. Therefore adjacent triangles (i.e., two triangles havinga single line segment as a side of each) always have difierent colors.Each of the three colors corresponds to one of the three sets of chessmen.

The three sets of chess men used on our board are conventional chess menand are shown in FIG. 2 as positioned after each player has made onemove.

The base line for each set is that peripheral line nearest to andparallel to a line passing through a row of chess 4 men of the same setor color standing in their beginning positions.

The color of each set of pieces is indicated by the legend nearest itsbase line in FIG. 2.

The first rank for each set of pieces is that row of playing spaceshaving a vertex but not a side on its base line. All the spaces definingthe first rank of each set have the same color as the color of the set.The positioning of the pieces in the first rank may preferably be thesame as in conventional chess except that the queen is always placed tothe kings left when viewed from the sets base line. As in conventionalchess, the pawns are positioned immediately inward of the major pieceson spaces having a side identical with a side of the first rank spaces(i.e., adjacent spaces).

One of the features of our invention is that, unlike prior three mangame boards, our game board provides playing spaces on which chess menmay move according to rules which are analogous to and very similar tothe rules of conventional chess. Each piece has its own unique rulegoverning its movement. The rook, the bishop and the queen, for example,have different rules governing their movement.

PREFERRED RULES OF THE CHESS GAME A pawn may move, when not takinganother piece, one space in a direction perpendicular to and away fromits base line. Optionally with the player, a pawn may be moved twospaces on its first move. We have shown in FIG. 1, as an example, thewhite pawn on space 4K which has made one move of two spaces from space2K, the black pawn on space 61 which has made one move of two spacesfrom space 7F, and the red pawn on space 6L which has made one move ofone space from space 7N. The pawn may take a piece or pawn which is on aspace adjacent to the space which the pawn occupies but only in adirection parallel to its base line. For example, the white pawn onspace 4K could take a piece on either space 4] or space 4L by moving tothat space and removing the taken piece.

The king may move one space in a direction perpendicular to any baseline to a space having a vertex in common with the space which the kingoccupies. For example, if a king were on space 46, it could move to anyone of the following spaces: 56; 36; 3E; 4H; 4F; or 3-1.

The rook may move parallel to any base line as many spaces as desired sofar as the path is unobstructed.

The bishop may move perpendicularly to any base line as many spaces asdesired so far as the path is unobstructed.

The knight is the only piece which can jump over other pieces. It may,according to our preferred rules, move two spaces perpendicularly to anybase line and then one space parallel to the base line. For example, aknight positioned at space 5] could move to any of the following spaces:7-I; 7K; 6H; 56; 4F; 3G; 3-I; 3K; 3M; 4N; 5M; or 6L.

The queen may move as many spaces as desired, so far as unobstructed, inany direction in a straight line either parallel to any base line orperpendicular to any base line.

The remaining rules are the same as in conventional chess. For example,when a piece or pawn is taken, the piece or pawn taken is removed fromthe board and the piece or pawn which takes is placed on the space fromwhich the piece or pawn is removed. A pawn may not take a pawn or pieceoccupying a space to which it could normally move if such a space wereunobstructed nor can it move to an unoccupied space on which it couldtake a piece or pawn if such piece or pawn were on such space. No pieceor pawn can take a piece or pawn of its own color.

A piece, on the other hand, can take any piece or pawn of another playeroccupying a space to which it can move.

Neither a piece (excepting a knight) nor a pawn can jump over any pieceor pawn of the same or any other color.

The king cannot move to a space in which it could be taken by anopposing players pawn or piece.

We prefer in our rules that where a king is checkmated, the king isremoved from the board, the pieces and pawns of the same color remainstationary on the board unless captured by an opposing piece or pawn,and the player of the checkmated king retires from the contest. However,if desired the pieces and pawns of the defeated king could be removedwith the king.

We prefer in castling that the king move two spaces of its own colortoward one of the rooks and such rook move to the opposite side of theking on the same colored triangle.

It is to be further understood that while the detailed drawings andspecific examples given describe preferred embodiments of our invention,they are for the purpose of illustration only, that the invention is notlimited to the precise details and conditions disclosed and that variouschanges may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention which is defined by the following claims.

We claim:

1. A game apparatus comprising a game board and three complete sets ofchessmen positioned on said board,

(a) said board having a planar comprising:

(1) a polygon having six sides;

(2) triangular playing spaces therein uniformly occupying the total areaof the interior of said polygon; and

(3) indicia on said spaces for distinguishing certain of said spacesfrom other of said spaces, consisting of hree colors whereinapproximately one-third of the spaces are designated by one color,another third is surface designated by a second color, and the otherthird is designated by a third color;

(b) said sets of chessmen each consisting of eight pieces and eightpawns and each set being colored to correspond to one and only one ofthe indicia colors of the the board.

(0) said spaces being defined by three sets of parallel lines on saidplanar surface, the lines of each set being at a 60 angle with the linesof the others of said sets, said polygon having border lines belongingto said sets of lines, the border lines being alternately three unitsand seven units in length, a unit being formed by a side of a triangularplaying space.

2. The game apparatus according to claim 1 wherein adjacent triangularplaying spaces have different colors therein.

3. The game apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the color in eachtriangular playing space is different from the color in each triangularplaying space with which it has an identical side, and whereintriangular playing spaces having the same color therein are distributedthroughout the plurality of triangular playing spaces.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 259,695 6/ 1882 Kingwill 273131384,195 6/1888 Duryea 273131 1,339,013 5/1920 Bennett 273131 1,704,8193/1929 Beaman 273-131 3,341,205 9/1967 Dykes 273-131 FOREIGN PATENTS24,644 1893 Great Britain. 3,214 1902 Great Britain. 3,585 5/ 1919Netherlands. 2,902 1908 Great Britain.

DELBERT B. LOWE, Primary Examiner-

